TV under £500?

Myself and the missus have found our first place together, and have decided to spend a chunk of the savings on a decent TV for the front room.

We're (read: me) budgeting a maximum of £500 for our main TV. Only requirement are PCx1 and Scartx1 connectivity - along with the usual plethora of HDMI gubbins. Also the longer the warrenty, the better.

I'm not neccessarily asking for direct links, but more of a list of specifications I should be looking at. 37"+ would be nice. 100hz seems to be a popular 'thing' at the moment. From what I understand it reduces motion blur - something we're very interested in.

Where I live currently has the worst excuse for a TV I've ever seen, £225 from Tesco, 32" and the picture quality is so awful I'd rather use a portable 14"! This has led me to be a little sceptical of non-Sony/Samsung etc. However all suggestions and comments are appreciated.

Also, the missus keeps banging on about surround sound, what would be a suitable amount to spent on a beginner setup?

Well I'd say that you need to think about what your after. This would be my list if I were to make one for a £500 TV. Stuff like 1080p, freeview if possible, usb device playback, etc

If it was me, and probably go for a well known brand, Samsung make some great TV's at the moment.

Choose say, 3, and then compare them with reviews, etc. :)

What are you connecting up to it? Are you planning to use Sky/Virgin HD? Because if so you dont need to be paying extra to get HD tuners like Freeview HD / Freesat.

37" W5500 and W5710 from Sony can both be had for ~£499 and would be good choices (end of life really as sony have released EX series with inbuilt tuners)

The Samsung 40" B550 can also be had for this price, but doesnt have 100hz, (although whether 100hz is worth it is personal preference)


Another more quirky option

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/sharp-a...369&xtor=AL-63

(discount codes to get it closer to 500) This is an LED TV, so its really an incredible price, although you dont get some more advanced features.

Review http://www.trustedreviews.com/tvs/re...klit-LCD-TV/p1

It'll hopefully be hooked upto a Sky+ box, and possibley a media PC. Perhaps a couple of retro consoles later on too.

Cheers for the advice so far!

Richersounds has a sale on this weekend (got a heads up via the vip email) - not sure if there is one near you:

Samsung 32" LE32B350 @ £249.95

LG 37" 37LH20 @ £299.95

No idea if they are any good but seem within budget atleast..

Amazon and Argos have a pretty decent slim and sleek 2010 LG Plasma for £399 - which is very hard to beat at that price point:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...pf_rd_i=468294

would leave you a bit to get a decent surround sound and Superfi have a very decent Sony 2.1 system at £169.99
http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/p..._medium=banner
this has more inputs/outputs than getting an all in one system but you may decide that a cheapish 5.1 system is better for your needs.

I would check out the sound on the LG first because in my experience they seem to have pretty decent sound on their Plasmas - certainly way better than Samsung for instance.:)

Atm theres alot of new stock coming into to retail stores so you might be able to bag yourself a bargain by going in to a couple electrical stores. Where I work there was a Samsung 42 inch B450 going for £600 which isn't too bad.

I can't recommend specific sets because I haven't looked recently, but re: the warranty, you might want to checkout John Lewis. Not only do you get top customer service (in my experience) but all TVs have a free 5 year warranty. Last time I bought a TV it was about £10 dearer than Comet etc, but they wanted £180 for the warranty and about £30 for delivery. Both were free with JL, making the package £200 dearer .... on a £450 set. :eek:

Samsung B550, Best Value. Picture quality is stunning! Check it out on Trusted Reviews or Avforums.